Clumsy with chopsticks but can't live without them... ** I don't post English translations of Japanese recipes without permissions from the recipe authors. But feel free to contact me about the dishes you're interested in.

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"OBACHAN" means a "middle-aged woman" or "aunty" in Japanese.
.*************************. Having moved back to my hometown in April 2009, I live in one of the desperately underpopulated areas in Japan now. Let me share my life in a real countryside with aging parents living in the same house. And here in Muroto -- the place where I chose to live -- you can hear the heartbeat of the Earth! ;)

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Monday, June 20, 2005

It’s been a while since I posted about the food we serve at the izakaya where I work last time. Here’s another one: Yaki-nasu (grilled eggplant).

We grill eggplants on a grid until tender, then cool immediately in water, peel, pat dry, make deep slits, sprinkle bonito flakes on top and serve with grated ginger and soy sauce (or dashi+soy sauce.)

As many cooks recommend, at our izakaya we grill eggplants directly over the flame of the gas stove. It is said that heating this way to burn the skin brings out better flavor and fragrance from the eggplants. The only thing is that you have to keep an old, dirty grid designated for this use only. (This photo was taken in my kitchen, but what we do at the izakaya is basically the same. My gas stove looks like this-- the one on top.)

At our izakaya, yaki-nasu is the menu for summer season only and we just started serving it last week. It has been my favorite since childhood. When I was small, the typical weekday lunch in my family in summer consisted of yaki-nasu, miso soup from breakfast, tofu and grilled himono (dried fish) with rice.

BTW, today I did another thing that I haven't done for a long time. I painted a watercolor.

> AugustusGloop --- What I meant was putting a grid(? Do you really call this a grid?) directly on the gas stove, like the photo I just added to the post. Actually I’m not sure what the best way is to describe this in English. Can you help?

> carlyn --- When you grill your eggplant, make sure to grill until it becomes really tender, like if you push it down with chopsticks or your fingers, it can go almost all the way down with little resistance. I assume your eggplants are generally fatter than ours...??

> AugustusGloop --- Thanks for your help :) Yeah, naked flame, indeed.And thanks for tagging me for the meme! This is going to be fun :D

Obachan'I can get Japanese eggplant at the Asian market and I will use them....They tend to let the eggplant grow a little too big here, since they really don't know what they should look like..ha ha...They assume they should be bigger, so I try to pick the smallest ones. I am so anxious to try this... thanks for your advice

You know what? The fatter kind of eggplants you have over there are called bei-nasu (means "American eggplant") here in Japan and they are (I think) more expensive. They are important ingredients for some very traditional Japanese dishes.